#gdb spoilers

[delicatefury]

On gdb: idk if this has been asked before but why does zuko has a spirit fever? Is it because of the time travel? Is azula having one too?

It has not been asked!

So (minor spoilers), what Zuko has is like a Spirit Fever. I’ve got it linked elsewhere, but there’s a really good post out there about even why Zuko’s spirit fever is a thing and why works (and why it’s kinda explained poorly because, unlike chakras, it’s based on a concept that most in the west don’t even have a passing familiarity with), but this is not because of the same reasons and definitely tied to his time travel.

This will be sort of explained in the following chapters, so spoilers ahead?

What’s happened is that Zuko has a lot of roadblocks in his fire bending, especially in season one, but also in season 2 (and most obviously  in Season 3, but that’s not quite the same thing). He’s held back by his pride/shame (fire chakra, go figure), by his trauma, and by his moral conflict. And it’s very much a physical as much as a mental thing in the Avatar world.

But after the Firebending Masters, Zuko doesn’t have any of those blocks. He’s moved past them and found a new, more powerful, source of his fire bending. He can stand toe-to-toe with Azula.

And the difference between that and season one Zuko is pretty stark.

And then you drop Book III Zuko spirit in Book I Zuko body… Sudden flow of chi that he was in no way prepared for in Book I = way too much energy = basically overheating. By a lot. A lot a lot. So poor Zuko’s got a fever as his body adjusts to the sudden (from the outside) increase in his fire bending ability/power.

So, given it’s suddenness, and the ties to his chi, it looks like a spirit fever. But since Zuko consciously made his choice to side with the Avatar this time and discarded the old version and accepted this new version of his identity, it’s not actually a spirit fever. And has no prophetic spirit-dreams attached. Just normal, terrible, horrendous fever-nightmares. Of various traumatizing things Zuko’s experienced. Mostly involving his crew and the ship.

Azula doesn’t have these blocks. Her power doesn’t noticeably increase between her first appearance and her last (even though her skills might). She already knows who she is. So there’s no great adjustment for her. There’s also the fact that her travel was planned. So no spirit-fever-esque illness for her.

Does that make sense?

[chargespeedjapan]

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[murumokirby360]

My WMMT5DXPlus Update - Oct. 26th,2018 [Part 3]

Here’s my latest update from my playing Wangan Maxi 5DX Plus w/ Riya’s TRUE IMPREZA.🚗 😊

So the result....SHE DID! SHE DID BEAT THE SPECIAL G ARMORED CAR!

Riya: [Doing Daniel Bryan's catchphrase] YES! (10 Times) 😄

With my Maxi G Points earn and her Shop Grade level "6 TIMES"! Riya: WOW! 😲 She's now choosing a whole custom items to suit her car taste - and she chose the "GT Wing (3D) 1". A spoiler wing that Spot's Impreza GDB-C current used.

I have more photos came from, plus I have another video that I recorded. Which I’ll post that soon.  😉

Previous: Part 1, Part 2

[0xmedeiros]

Buffer Overflow Pwnable.kr [WRITEUP]

[ ATENÇÃO ] ALERTA DE SPOILERS, CASO NÃO TENHA FINALIZADO A CHALLENGE.

Há um tempo já estava com a ideia de escrever uma writeup dos meus desafios, percebi que é uma boa maneira de estudar tanto hacking quanto produção de texto ao mesmo tempo. Então eu decidi aumentar o brilho do monitor e começar a registrar os desafios que eu matei. É útil informar que a minha área é Low Level, ou seja, enquanto minha sanidade mental estiver saudável nenhum php aparecerá por aqui.

ANALISANDO O SOURCE

Vamos primeiramente analisar a nossa situação. Esse abaixo é o c��digo fonte do binário.

O binário possui a função func() que recebe como argumento um inteiro, a key, e caso ele seja igual a 0xcafebabe o programa executa uma shell. Porém a função é chamada com a key incorreta. Portanto, o objetivo aqui é mudar o argumento da chamada por 0xcafebabe para valida-lo e executar o nosso shell de cada dia.

BOTANDO A MÃO NO SHELL

Inicialmente já temos o conhecimento de qual falha nos brincaremos, o Buffer Overflow. Para fazer o debugger usarei o meu velho amigo GDB puro e sem plugins. Porque eu acho que o aprendizado se tornar melhor trabalhando com ferramentas puras, ou talvez eu sou esteja com preguiça de instalar o plugin PEDA.

Ao jogar um amontoado de dados aleatório no programa recebemos o alerta de segurança STACK SMASHING. Podemos definir ele como uma proteção do binário, ele detecta a entrada em grande volume e mata o programa. Mais para frente falaremos dele.

O lado bom é que isso significa que nosso binário já corrompeu, ou seja, já conseguimos quebrar o limite do buffer.

Vamos agora fazer um disassembler rápido no código.

A instrução marcada acima, cmpl, está comparando 0xcafebabe com 0xdeadbeef. Mas preste atenção, para fazer comparação ele busca o dado(0xdeadbeef) na stack pelo seu endereço (ebp - 0x8) . Perceba que a chamada da função gets, o que causa nosso overflow, está imediatamente atras dele. Portanto, já que o dado a ser comparado está na stack, e é executado logo depois da chamada gets, podemos tentar encontra-lo na stack e sobreescreve-lo por um dado novo.

Ok, então vamos setar um breakpoint nessa exata instrução e analisar o estado da stack.

Ya Bitch! Perceba que o nosso overflow (0x41"A") quase sobrescreeveu o 0xdeadbeef, então vamos calcular o quanto falta parar chegar no 0xdeadbeef e gerar a entrada. 1 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 13 * 4 = 52

Com 52 caracteres podemos alcançar o 0xdeadbeef.

O que queremos é que a instrução seja verdadeira para que execute nosso shell. Portanto, sobreescrevendo o 0xdeadbeef por 0xcafebabe fazemos ele comparar 0xcafebabe == 0xcafebabe, e assim executando nosso shell.

Mas ué, o que aconteceu ? O stack smashing está matando nosso processo ao detectar o buffer overflow. Uma boa técnica para dar bypass nessa segurança, é executar sem fechar o pipe de comunicação do processo, assim o programa continua executando. Para fazer isso você pode utilizar o comando "cat [file] -".

ow bitch, deu certo!

Agora é só dar o mesmo comando usando a conexão com o server do pwnable.

[delicatefury]

How long does it take for not actually possessed Zuko to win his crew over?

Hmmm... well, there’s how long it takes him to win them over, how long it takes them to admit he’s won them over, and how long it takes for Zuko to realize he’s won them over.

Different crew members take different amounts of time. Jee will actually stick close to canon, time-wise, but Zuko officially won him over as of The Storm anyway, which is about a week or two after GDB starts. Then there’s the crew members who already had a soft-spot for the shouty-prince, and then there are the ones who definitely did not have a soft-spot for shouty-princes, and then there are the ones who are 100% convinced that that is not the Prince not-shouting at them.

But definitely by the siege of the north. For the crew. Zuko’s realization is a lot more iffy.

[delicatefury]

Has Zuko forgotten anything funny about his old ship and crew?

I’m still fleshing out his crew. (I’m a bit pedantic when it comes to certain details. I love fics where the author has clearly done their homework, so I try to do the same), so I’m not sure what funny details he’d have forgotten. To bring Zuko’s obvious trauma into things, he spent three years on a very small ship, so there’s not much about it that he could forget, and he’s checked the rolls of the dead from the Siege of the North. He knows his crew’s names and positions by heart even if he didn’t at the time.

He’s more likely to have forgotten how they expect him to act. And how they expect him to not care. Or ask. Or acknowledge them as people. Because he was trying to be the prince Ozai wanted. And the prince Ozai wanted was a prince more like Azula who treats even her closest friends as pai sho tiles rather than people.

The humor comes from how unnerved his crew gets over him doing things like apologizing, or offering a hand up, or asking if they’re okay. Things that Post-Eclipse Zuko has gotten plenty of practice doing while trying very, very hard to fit in with the Gaang.

Yeah, they’re pretty sure something possessed him back on the Solstice.

[delicatefury]

On gdb: i dont know if anyone has asked you this (or if this is a spolier) but whats up with toph?

Toph…

 is…

actually not up to much of anything different just yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Gaoling is south of Omashu, so Zuko and the Gaang have long since passed it and nothing they do will much affect the “delicate, sheltered daughter” of the Beifongs.

So until the Gaang go and get her, she’s doing her Toph thing. Pretending to be weak, sneaking out and kicking ass when she gets bored, perfecting her bending.

Of course, when Zuko does get to join the Gaang, he’s going to try desperately to drag them to go and get her ASAP. It’s Toph. They need her. Why wait?

He greatly underestimates Aang’s stubbornness on the whole ‘going to Omashu’ thing…

[delicatefury]

Grey Dawn Breaking: How it Starts

Forgive me my word vomit, but this is where it gets fun.

First things first: Zuko? Totally unprepared for all of this. He was not asked his opinion, he was not warned, he was not even given a decent outline of what the hell’s going on. All he knows is pre-Firebending practice one day a week or so before Sozin’s Comet (before they saw the Ember Island Players), Aang asked to skip morning firebending practice so he could investigate something in the Spirit World that was giving him the “oogies”. Aang’s normally completely blank meditation face starts giving obvious signs of distress, he yells out for Azula to stop what she’s doing, white Avatar eyes (just spirit world, though, not Avatar state) spring open, stare into Zuko’s soul, and all he gets is an “I’m sorry, but you need to stop her” from Aang before he’s suddenly staring up at Avatar Roku’s white Avatar eyes on Crescent Island.

Roku doesn’t give him much more to work on, since he’s on a bit of a timetable. Literally three sentences, none of which actually really explain things either. But Zuko’s had this nightmare before (where Roku doesn’t free him/where Roku attacks him/where Zhao actually arrests him) so he flees, on autopilot, back to the Wani. His brain is basically just a litany of “What the hell what the hell what the hell?” He gets to the Wani, and there’s Uncle Iroh being super concerned over his jerk of a nephew who totally betrayed him, and there’s Lt. Jee, and Private Ichimaru, and Corporal Ming and they died in the Siege of the North (Damn you Zhao, except he doesn’t really mean that, he wouldn’t wish being trapped in the Spirit World like that on anyone) he saw their names on the records, but those are Uncle’s hands grasping his shoulders, and Uncle’s worried eyes, and Uncle’s scared-concerned voice saying “Prince Zuko!”- And it’s too much for Zuko. He passes out in his Uncle Iroh’s arms.

Aang, actually, gets a lot more information about what’s going on than Zuko. You see, a Fire Nation spirit, she calls herself The Painted Lady, interrupted his very important talk with Avatar Roku. With all the greatest respect, of course. She came as the emissary of Agni and the other great spirits to warn Aang of an equally if not more disastrous occurrence than Sozin’s Comet. Someone in the Fire Nation made a deal with a dark spirit. A very dangerous deal with a very powerful spirit. The chance to go back and relive these critical months between now and the return of the Comet with all her knowledge intact. They don’t know which spirit, they don’t know what price has been offered or paid. But they do know that it has the ability to completely disrupt the balance and to destroy the Fire Nation. All hope is not lost, however, because a very particular, and rare, set of circumstances have allowed the Great Spirits to basically strong-arm another person into that deal/pathway through time.

Spirits are only sort-of-okay with mortal’s names, especially if there’s no interaction with them personally. So Aang gets the rundown on why this guy works and not, well, himself or his friends from 8 months in the future. 1. This sort of thing doens’t work for Avatars, their duel nature makes them more of a fixed point in timeline shenanigans, 2. this person is a close blood relative of the deal maker 3.descended from an Avatar so a bit more sensitive whether he likes it or not, and 4. basically in just the right place and the right time in both the future and the current moment to allow Aang to act as a bridge. Congrats Roku, I hear Agni is fairly impressed with your great-great-grandkid.

((Yes, I added a generation. My explanation turned into a three paragraph rant and that detracted from the story. Let’s just say, sorry comics writers, but there can’t be just 2 female generations between Roku and Zuko. From the comics’ own timeline Ursa’s mom had to be a minimum Seventy-Three years old when Ursa was born. And that’s with the assumption that Ta Min was pregnant in her 60s when Roku died.))

Aang still agrees to let Roku take over to get him and his friends off Crescent Island. This goes the same except Roku doesn’t free Zuko right away. Instead, well, 3 sentences, remember? Then Zuko’s set free and Roku turns his attention to the sages and the rest goes the same as the episode.

So, yeah, Azula’s our dark-spirit-deal-maker. Which you could say doesn’t make sense, except it kinda does. She’s obsessed with perfection and control. Her identity is absolutely tied up with that and with knowing how others will react and manipulating them to do as she pleases. She’s in the beginning stages of her breakdown where Mai and Ty Lee have betrayed her, Zuko’s just fought her to retreat not once, but twice (the gondola at The Boiling Rock with help. The attack on the Western Air Temple without it), and she’s getting the feeling that Ozai is less than impressed with her recent feats, or lack thereof. So when Li and Lo mention a spirit tale in passing about second chances, well, she latches on with all the desperation that accompanied the Final Agni Kai. And despite the warnings, she makes them help her contact the spirit and make the deal. And with her perfect knowledge of her so-called “friends”, her idiot brother, the Avatar, and all of their plans and weaknesses, winning this war will be a piece of cake. After all, Azula figures this deal’s not actually dangerous to her. She’s Agni-blessed, a prodigy, and born with the divine right to dominate the world. She won’t make the same stupid mistakes those peasants in the Spirit Tales did. This spirit will answer to her.

And, well, we know which Spirit is attracted to the arrogant, don’t we?

[delicatefury]

Random Grey Dawn Breaking stuff

Because it is late and I have no new asks.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Katara picks up on the fact that Zuko tends to ‘borrow’ moves from other bending styles. When Toph starts teaching Aang and Katara gets more free time, she insists that Zuko walk her through firebending moves so that she can try adapting them as well.

Ursa will be in the story at some point. And her characterization in The Search will be torn to shreds. This will also be used to delve into why the Avatar needs to be human and live a human life. Because spirits are not human and should not be expected to act/reason like one. Or to always choose the best course of action when messy human things like relationships are involved. Can you tell I’m not happy with The Search?

I’ve been using US military units to help me visual scale of battles, but that leads to some interesting questions. The 41st was an entire division of raw recruits and they were being sent up against a battalion of earthbenders. A division is 10 to 15 thousand soldiers. While a battalion is 100 to 1000. I don’t doubt 1000 skilled earthbenders could take out 10,000 raw recruits, but an entire division made up of nothing but raw recruits seems... really stupid. As does sacrificing 10,000 soldiers to definite death as opposed to the possible death of, well, a lot fewer experienced soldiers. And I know Ozai and his military leaders make a lot of stupid decisions, but this seems extreme. The plan to use an entire division as bait for an ambush also feels stupid because it would require the Earth Kingdom to know that these are inexperienced soldiers. Otherwise, it would not make a tempting enough target. I might have to mess with the numbers a bit.

To put the above into perspective, the battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle on American soil, had a grand total of 7863 dead. That’s both sides combined. The deadliest ww2 battle for the US claimed 26,277 lives and that battle lasted a month. The 41st was implied to be given a suicide mission, essentially being set up to be wiped out in one fell swoop.

I’ve been thinking about all this because the massacre of the so very young 41st is one of the rallying cries of the Fire Nation a la “Remember the Alamo”. Like, three degrees of separation, max, between you and someone’s child/sibling/spouse lost in the battle. So when word starts to get around out that this wasn’t a cowardly, opportunistic ambush by the barbaric earthbenders that was justly countered, but rather a coldly calculated trap? Yeah...

Sokka still calls Zuko an “angry freak with a ponytail.” In his defense, he was super tired and Zuko wasn’t there getting chased by some unknown hellish machine all night like the rest of them. Zuko probably got a whole 8 hours of sleep on his super special Zuko alone trip. He didn’t have to deal with nagging sisters and tantrum-throwing earthbenders. Sokka was allowed to be cranky. Plus it’s totally true, so there.

Toph spends a lot of the first week after meeting Zuko confused, given the whole “Angry Jerk” thing and the “we maybe kinda forgot to tell you about our ‘temporarily away’ team member” bit. Especially when the whole ‘spirits-induced time travel’ story gets told. She doesn’t like being confused and takes it out on Zuko by making him act as her personal tea making servant. Zuko lets her.

“Flameo Hotman” does not mean what Aang thinks it means. I’ve taken liberties from the fact that 1. Language, especially slang, can drift a lot in 100 years, and 2) in LoK, Lin says “what the flameo happened here?”. I’ve also decided that it falls on Zuko to explain that while “hotman” is... okay, if a bit weird coming from a 12 year old, Aang absolutely should not say ‘flameo’. Ever. It is a very awkward conversation that utilizes the full range of Zuko’s turtleduck-ness.

Zuko realizes at some point in the Earth Kingdom journey that Aang 1) has a single outfit and 2) is entering puberty. I remember when my younger brother was both 12 and refusing to change shirts because “it’s still clean”. It was not pleasant. Zuko will take it upon himself to get Aang some ‘training clothes’ so that Aang’s Airbender outfit can be washed more often. He will try various tactics to get Aang to agree to ‘please wear something else’ while training but eventually will tell him point blank that, despite what Sokka may say, most girls (with a significant nod towards Katara) do not find rank boy smell ‘manly’. It works.

Zuko also feels that it’s necessary to mention in that conversation that Toph should not be used as a standard for ‘normal’ no matter who or what is being compared, negative or positive.

Zuko lets the phrase ‘life changing field trip’ slip out once. No one lets him forget it. The entire Gaang uses it to mercilessly tease him, but each one of them is secretly really excited for their turn.

Yes I know that Toph only calls it that right before the comet so technically Zuko has never heard the phrase before. Look, I’m making an entire spreadsheet to figure out how many days and nights are actually shown during the series so I know exactly when I can insert more/what kind of travel is realistic. I’m allowed to fudge some things in the name of fun.

Toph will get her field trip.

[delicatefury]

Grey questions. How come Zuko doesn’t join the Gaang at first? When will he full join the Gaang? What does Iroh tell the crew to explain Zuko’s change in behavior? Does Zuko’s character development effect his relationship with his uncle? Was Azula also thrown back in time? Of these are too spoilery no need to answer.

I want to answer all these so you forced me to actually log on to the actual website on my ipad (which is a pain in the ass) because it lets me do read-mores [Edit: LIES! It disappeared!] So non-spoilers here (for a given measure of non-spoiler) and the rest below the readmore. [More lies. Damn you tumblr.com]

Why doesn’t Zuko join the Gaang right away?

Well, first, he is an awkward turtleduck and they’re back to square one of him being (rightfully) disliked by them and that kinda hurts. But mostly? Zuko’s aware that he’s got other responsibilities right now that he doesn’t have at literally any other time in the cartoon: his crew. He remembers that they died in the Siege of the North, and Book III Zuko has remembered what kind of person he is: the kind who will not stand for sending men to pointless deaths. Unfortunately, Ozai and Zhao are both the kind of commanders who just might get rid of an entire ship of “useless” soldiers for not catching a “traitor” before he runs off.

So, until he has word of Azula moving against Aang and the others, Zuko’s going to do his best to protect the Wani and her crew. His efforts do not go unnoticed or unrewarded.

When will he full join?

He will fully join the Gaang sometime during/after the Siege (depending on how you look at it) and before they go to the Earth Kingdom. At that point, he has no ship and his crew are officially under someone else’s command, and thus not liable for him going rogue. He has done all he possibly can to keep them from being killed from foreseeable threats and so can devote himself to stopping Ozai and Azula with a clear conscience. (There are things that Zuko’s own self-esteem keep him from ‘foreseeing’ and thus completely blindside him).

[Edit]THE READMORE DISAPPEARED!!!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!

What does Iroh tell the crew to explain Zuko’s change in behavior? 

I personally love this bit and I hope it satisfies in-story. Iroh gives the crew two truths wrapped in lies and half-truths. It’s obvious that something spirit related happened on the Solstice, so he leans in on that. Zuko’s been given a Spirit Task by a Fire Nation spirit (technically true, but Iroh and Zuko don’t know that. Yet). Since Spirit Tasks come with unfortunate consequences for those who elect to ignore them, Zuko’s forced to take measures to complete it, even if it ‘conflicts’ with his quest to capture the Avatar.

The other bit is that he lies and says that he assigned the Dancing Dragon form as a challenge/punishment for Zuko since it requires a fundamentally different approach to firebending than he was used to. And whatever very personal thing (and you know how nephew reacts to people prying into personal things, so better not ask him what) happened on the Solstice, helped Zuko reach a breakthrough, which has removed one of the prince’s biggest sources of frustration. A week sick with nothing to do but self-reflection didn’t hurt things either.

It’s not a perfect explanation, but the crew accepts it enough to stop believing that Zuko’s possessed at least.

Does Zuko’s character development effect his relationship with his uncle? 

How could it not? Book I Zuko stood there like an awkward dead fish when getting an Iroh hug after a horribly open and raw admission from his uncle. Book III Zuko clings to his uncle (real dad) tightly and has initiated I believe two hugs by the finale. Zuko missed Iroh and will (mostly) not take Iroh’s presence and his wisdom and his teaching for granted. There’s a limit, though, and Zuko’s still a teenager. But he makes sure Uncle Iroh knows just how much Zuko appreciates (read: loves) him.

Iroh’s a little bit disappointed on a personal, selfish level that he did not get to watch Zuko grow into the wonderful prince he always knew he could be, but he’s so proud of the young man in front of him. The one who was open to the Dragons’ teaching, who wants to restore balance, who wants to bring the Fire Nation back to the truly honorable country it should be. And with the hardest and most important part of Zuko’s growth accomplished, Iroh switches gears pretty seamlessly. Time to prepare the next Firelord for the other parts of the job. Good thing Zuko’s already (finally) taking an interest in properly running his ship. 

Was Azula also thrown back in time? 

This isn’t really a spoiler, but it was the last question so it gets to go down here too.

“Thrown back” implies that it was involuntary. Zuko was ‘thrown back’. Azula, increasingly desperate and beginning to crack under her fragile facade of perfection, sought this out. A way to have greater control over the outcome, over others, over herself. 

Go back and she’ll know that Mai requires even more incentive, more fear so she’ll never betray her. Go back and she’ll be able to ensure Mai and Ty Lee never get close enough to conspire against her. Zuko won’t know that he’s just a prisoner and she’ll get him home on the first try, and Father will have to recognize her perfection in succeeding her first official mission flawlessly. She’ll take out her stupid, fat uncle at that ghost town, or maybe under Ba Sing Se. He’ll have an ‘accident’ on the way back to Caldera and Zuko will never have that weakling whispering poison in his ear, he’ll have to rely on her absolutely instead.

Knowledge of her enemies and her own weakness and the opportunity to exploit the one and fix the other before anyone learns of them? All she has to do is find a spirit dim enough to actual agree to help her with her plans, which is most of them. After all, spirits are constantly being outwitted in the old Spirt Tales, and she’s far more brilliant than the stupid peasants in those. See mother, your stupid fairytales are finally proving somewhat useful.

Azula isn’t ‘thrown back’. Azula forced her way there first.

[delicatefury]

When did Zuko look up the fate of his crew? when he got back the fire nation?

In Grey Dawn Breaking that’s exactly when he looked it up.

I mean, he was obviously feeling pretty masochistic in a lot of ways. He kept visiting Iroh, kept trying to force himself to be everything he was expected to be. Why not find out just how bad a loss the Siege of the North actually was?

And it comes with the bonus benefit of allowing him to lie to himself that the Avatar really is super dangerous and deserving of being wiped out via horrible OOC assassin-hiring (even my first time watching that whole bit felt off).

(In reality, it just leaves Zuko feeling more and more guilty.)

[delicatefury]

More Stuff from Grey Dawn Breaking because I have minor insomnia and need to sleep

I kid you not, I am 3 pages away from filling up my 3x5 moleskine with just notes on this story. I might need to find an empty 5x8 to start actually writing.

Anyway...

Spoilers ahead!

***

After making it to the Wani after Crescent Island and passing out on Uncle Iroh, Zuko’s body decides to react to the sudden influx of extra memories and new source of firebending by sending him into another spirit fever (technically the first). Iroh is rightly and parentally terrified. What could Zuko have gone through to trigger this?

The fever lasts nearly a week and only lets up shortly before the events of The Waterbending Scroll. Zuko, still dissoriented, still wobbly, hears about the pirates looking for three kids and thinks “Oh hell, what happens if I’m not there to insist on them being kept alive?!”, vaguely panics, and insists on following the pirates (even if his conscience won’t allow him to partner up with them this time).

It still manages to blow up in his face. He’s just gotten over being sick, he’s super stressed, still not quite sure why he’s 8 months in the past, and all his friends are back to hating him. Plus, he forgot he even had Katara’s necklace at this point and realizes after the pirates tied her up that he left the one thing to get in her good graces (so she can maybe please pass a message on to Aang) on the boat. His attempts to commandeer the pirates’ kidnapping by offering a bounty, (because if Katara’s his prisoner then he can keep the pirates from-) goes about as well as expected. But yeah, Aang and Sokka still convince the pirates to attack Zuko, they still steal the pirate ship, the pirates take the river steamer. And Zuko watches his first opportunity to change anything go up in smoke.

Iroh expects a temper tantrum. Zuko just kinda sighs resignedly, tells his men to gather up the pirates for their bounty, and says he heading back to the boat.

***

There are four episodes between the Winter Solstice Part II and The Blue Spirit. Zuko does not get to have a decent conversation with a single member of the Gaang during that entire span. This stresses him out. Instead, he gets to deal with an increasingly jumpy crew and nosy Uncle (who he still can’t quite look in the eye). Zuko’s not really a long-term plan guy (he’s getting better, but still) so he has no clue what his best option is here.

The crew of the Wani think a spirit possessed the brat prince at Crescent Island. They are convinced mainly because it takes him two days after waking up from his fever to mention “honor” even once. And it’s not even anything about capturing the avatar to regain his lost honor! In addition: not complaining about tea, not demanding firebending practice and spars, not screaming to the heavens, generally being... around on deck and not locked in his room (after weeks with the Gaang, his rooms are too silent. Too lonely), and the big one, avoiding General Iroh, the most spiritually aware person on the Wani. Well, he did scream once, but there were actual words. Private Ichimaru swears he heard the prince apologize for bumping into him! The crew is divided on whether a spirit-possessed prince is a good thing or a bad thing.

Iroh doesn’t know what to think. Yes, Zuko’s been avoiding him since his fever. And yes, Zuko’s behavior has changed. But every time Iroh tries to be supportive and offer a listening ear to find out why, his nephew finds an excuse to be literally anywhere else. And Iroh only ever seems to catch Zuko practicing his bending when no one else is around. He stops as soon as he even suspects anyone’s near. Iroh knew the Spirit fever would end with Zuko gaining some perspective and possibly some changed behaviors, but he has no clue why Zuko now seems to actually want nothing to do with him. He’s extremely worried, very hurt, and very lonely without his nephew.

Zuko is just... constant stress. He has to talk to Aang. That is the first thing he needs to do. He just... can’t seem to actually do it. And he’s on a ship with men he mourned and an Uncle who keeps offering him tea and doesn’t know that Zuko is the lowest creature ever and threw away his Uncle’s love and support for Azula and Ozai. So there’s a brand new flush of guilt every time he sees Uncle Iroh, too. Uncle might be willing to believe him about the situation and offer some advice, but Zuko’s afraid of having to tell Uncle Iroh just how terrible of a person he actually is. But if he doesn’t, then getting Uncle’s love and help feels like he’s cheating somehow. So he’s just... avoiding. He is, however, completely unaware of the crew’s thoughts on teh matter.

This pattern lasts all of a day, maybe two, post WBS. Iroh claims that the events prove that Zuko needs to practice more to make up for his week sick. Zuko has no excuse not to, so Iroh starts him sparring against two apponents. And then three when it becomes obvious that despite his recent illness, Zuko’s holding his own. And then Zuko, who has been very careful to use Sozin’s style of firebending even as it feels wrong and weak, slips. A lucky shot from behind leads to him twisting and countering in a move that Iroh knows comes from the Dancing Dragon form. He also knows that he has neither taught, nor ever shown, Zuko that move. He calls off practice and essentially demands that Zuko meets him in his room for tea. It’s time to get some answers.

****

Ask me for random facts from this story. I’ve got a whole 3x5 notebook full of them.

[delicatefury]

What is Zuko’s reaction to having ~20 ships suddenly following him?

Mild panic? Being on the recieving end of personal loyalty that’s not from Uncle is kind of a novel concept for Zuko. He’s sort of, kind of getting to understand it on a personal level thanks to Mai and the Gaang, but leadership-wise? It’s a complete unknown. “The entire Fire Nation thinks I’m a traitor.” He doesn’t expect anyone from his home to take his side.

And now, for some reason, his crew picked him over the Firelord? Not only that, but they convinced others to listen to him too when the moon went dark? And told the story of the 41st division? And these men have decided they’re done following commanders and lords who treat them like disposable pawns and send them to death by the hundreds, if not thousands.

Zuko was looking forward to not having to worry about his crew’s lives or them being tarred with the same brush as him. He did not account for them willfully joining him in his “treason”. He really did not account for 20~ish more ships also willfully joining him in his “treason”.

But they’re all looking at him to give them direction now that they’ve left the Firelord, and they’re counting on him to protect them from the wrath of the Northern Water Tribe, andd Zuko does not give up for anything. He wanted to make sure his men survived the Siege of the North. It’s just making sure a few more men survive a few months longer. No big deal, right?

(Thankfully, at least half of good leadership is learning when to deligate and finding trustworthy people to delegate to and Uncle Iroh, Lt. Jee, and the commander who’s now de facto admiral of this little fleet are not so subtly making sure that Zuko is aware of this.)

[delicatefury]

Grey Dawn Breaking day 3: You do realize this is basically me outlining the plot, right?

It’s not even subtle. As such, things written here may or may not be entirely accurate to the final product.

Anyway... on to the show!

****Spoilers ahead because I don’t know how to read-more on mobile****

I know you’re all anxious to see the Zuko+Iroh talk go down, but I’d just like to take a moment to catch up with the rest of the Gaang and how they’re handling all of this. I just want to make it clear though, that I love every single member of the Gaang. Like if I wasn’t so invested in GDB, I’d probably write at least a one shot of all this happening to Aang instead and him just being like “In this timeline, Avatar’s chase you!” Before kidnapping Zuko onto a life-changing field trip, because it has to work in reverse, right?

That’s not this story, though, and GDB is eating me up inside and I need that attention for the bar exam. So without further ado...

—————

So, right off the bat, Aang’s been given even more responsibility from the get-go. Not only does he have to master all four elements by the end of summer, defeat the firelord, and save the world, he also has to find Avatar Roku’s great (great) grandson so they can help him find a person who made a deal with a dark spirit to do who knows what and that problem might actually take priority!

In usual Aang fashion, he manages to both kinda ignore it, but also worry about it all the time. Which is avoidance and an issue he struggles with and that as never fully resolved (because while I love the Zuko-episodes, the fact that they’re the last ones before the finale means that some really important pre-finale growth for Aang kinda got shuffled to the side. Just a smidge). What this means story-wise is that Aang is internally anxious but keeps his cheerful facade up complete with side-trips and nonesense.

Which also means that he’s fully on board for searching for “curios” on suspicious ships.

Meanwhile, Sokka and Katara are the only witnesses to Avatar Roku singleing Zuko out during their great escape. When they tell Aang about what they saw (but didn’t hear) they joke that maybe Roku was trying to scare the prince away. After all, Zuko looked pretty shaken after Roku smiled at him. What could that be if not a threat?

(That’s a boy with severe self-esteem issues getting approval from someone he never expected to get it from, comics-be-damned.)

Water Bending Scroll happens similar but differently. Katara’s captured a little later, but not by much, but what’s weird is that when Zuko shows up, he’s creeping in the shadows, not being all stomping and yelling like she’s used to. He, well, asks to save her from the pirates. Actually the exchange is more “will you stop wriggling and let me cut you free?!”(whisper-yelled) “What the - Zuko?!” (Very loud shout). Zuko’s forced to recover, offers the bounty for Katara (she hears that he’s willing to buy her. He will later be upset that that’s how she interprets his actions, yet she gives no thought to what pirates would do), accidentally lets slip that there’s a bounty on her companions too, and well, the rest goes as described in last post.

Between this and Crescent Island and Aang’s secondary quest, the Gaang gets a lot to talk about in their bits in between Zuko’s woes. A lot of it focusing on Zuko’s slightly, but not actually, out of character actions. And one accurate but dismissed joke from Sokka that “Hey, maybe Zuko’s Roku’s grandkid!”.

Actually, there’s a lot to going on with Sokka, Katara, and Aang while Zuko’s stressing out on the Wani, and while Zuko’s our traveler, Avatar (and by extension GDB) is sort of an ensemble story with each character getting a pretty well developed arc/personality and I intend to do the same here.

But back to Zuko, because he’s still the main driving force of this plot.

____________

In all honesty, I’ve blocked this scene out on multiple drives to and from work (I haven’t moved yet, so I still get 20+ minutes each way), and I have made myself cry. But The Padawan Discussion from TDPL did too, and people seemed to love that.

But... you won’t be getting the full cry version. This is just the outline. But it’s a very detailed outline.

I’ve gone over this scene a lot.

_______________

Zuko cleans himself up after his training and goes to join his uncle for tea. It takes a while to psych himself up. He’s fully aware that he’s pretty poorly equipped to handle this... everything... on his own. He needs guidance. He needs help. He needs Uncle. But the guilt is eating him up alive and this is probably the most terrifying thing he’s ever done, and that includes facing Ozai in the Agni Kai arena and in the underground throne room.

He remembers Sokka telling him that Uncle would be proud of him. He knows Katara would say that his sincerity would speak for itself. Toph would tell him to toughen up and just go in, while Suki would remind him to stop thinking only about worst-case scenarios.

And Aang would tell him that sometimes, you just need to take a leap of faith.

With that thought, he goes in.

Uncle is waiting with tea in the pot. Zuko carefully keeps the table between them, instead of sitting off to the side. He sees the hurt in Uncle Iroh’s eyes, but he needs the barrier. He feels like he’s taking advantage of his Uncle if he accepts the comfort.

Uncle Iroh does what he’s best at and approaches his problem from an angle. He compliments Zuko’s bending, and the seeming progress. Makes idle chitchat while he pours the tea and waits for Zuko’s first sip. And sighs in relief when it’s spat back out. Zuko’s incensed. Why the hell is his tea so salty?!

And Iroh explains what Zuko has missed. The men have been gossiping that a Spirit has taken Zuko’s place or put a spell on him or possessed him. Since Zuko’s reaction to the salt was entirely human (and not, you know, dropping an illusion, or fleeing to the spirit world, etc.) Iroh can now let the men know that their prince is not possessed by any spirits. But Zuko asks about spirit deals. He’s not stupid, and he has probably researched every possible lead on the Avatar. He thinks he has an idea of what happened.

And Uncle Iroh automatically assumes it was Zuko who made the deal. In denying it, and explaining that he’s pretty sure Azula’s done something like that, details of what happened start to come out. Even the fact that Zuko’s 8 months displaced. And Iroh takes it all in stride. Until he asks Zuko if it has anything to do with why he’s avoiding him. If he had done something to anger his nephew.

Zuko, haltingly, forces himself to explain that it’s all his own fault. That he screwed up and ruined everything and how the guilt ate him up every time he looked at his uncle. And when he takes a breath after going on about how much Iroh will be disappointed in him when he knows just how bad he screwed up, Iroh pulls him into a hug, tea and table be damned. He’s an old man and he knows himself better than anyone, even Zuko, and there’s nothing in the world Zuko could do that would ever make Iroh hate him. And that Zuko’s so remorseful and so obviously pained, how could he do anything but forgive him?

So Zuko tells him a very abridged version of the most eventful 8 months of his life. Chasing the Avatar to the poles, their lives as fugitives in the Earth Kingdom and refugees in Ba Sing Se, the tea shops, and Zuko’s first encounter with a spirit fever. With context, Zuko’s betrayal is both more painful and more understandable and Iroh hugs him again before the apologies can start. Then the return to the Fire Nation, the Day of the Black Sun, and Iroh’s happiest surprise of the day, his nephew joining the Avatar as his teacher.

Then they finally get to what started the whole line of questioning: Zuko’s use of the dancing dragon form.

And when the story’s finished, Iroh asks Zuko to show him the full form. His nephew shouldn’t worry about what the crew may think, he’s already coming up with a half-true cover story.

______

This... this ended up being a lot more detailed than I intended. I’m sure you all don’t mind, but still.

Anyway... I stayed up too late. But once I got started writing this out, I needed to keep going. Here’s hoping I don’t regret it in the morning.

[delicatefury]

found Grey Dawn Breaking on accident, now I'm looking forwards to it. I'm curious. How long does it take for Zuko to get to talk to Aang?

I’m so glad you like it!

It takes Zuko longer than he’d like, but not as long as you’d think.

He totally screws up with the Pirate Thing. There is no denying that. Though somehow, he thinks he may have actually managed to make the Gaang’s opinion of him even worse.

But, a few weeks after that, he knows there’s an opportunity to talk to Aang one on one: when the Blue Spirit breaks the Avatar out of Pohuai Stronghold. Once he can get Aang away from Zhao, there will be at least a few minutes with no Sokka and Katara, no Crew, no Uncle, and especially no pirates, where Aang was willing to reach out to him. And as long as Zuko doesn’t shoot fire at him (which he won’t), Aang should be willing to hear him out.

Whether at the end of it Aang actually, really and fully, believes him, (and is willing to try and convince Sokka and Katara) well... let’s just say Zuko’s glad he thought ahead enough to bring compensation for the perfume making nuns with him just in case.

[delicatefury]

I want a spoiler. Can we have an out of context sentence?

Blue fire just burns hotter, and hotter fire isn’t dragon’s fire no matter what the Firelord’s propaganda machine might say.